[Reader-list] Reg: Mail on nationalism and Gujarat's secular development (And my experiences)

[Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi]

Rakesh,
your post made very interesting reading material for me, thanks. But the
fact is Nitish by himself without the support of BJP was a non starter when
Lalu had mis managed the state for decades, and again, it is BJP which lacks
the savvy sense of being aloof and not trying to break the shackles of
getting labelled as communal, the propaganda against it being powerful,
leaders not active enough to manage this negative perception pressed for
years in the minds of population. Though there are many more MPs from
different faiths including Islam in BJP, the efforts to make a conscious
efforts to be with ALL the citizens irrespective of their faith in
governance is needed to more urgently correct the perception, which does not
come by tokenism of advertisements of secularism, but by practice at the
grass root level.
regards,
rajen.

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 12:54 PM, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi all
>
> First of all, I am excited to be back posting on Sarai after a long time. I
> had been to Araria in Bihar for 20 days with regard to an internship doing
> social audit of MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
> Act) in two panchayats of Araria district. I enjoyed the experience, and
> was
> also sad and pained to see the levels of corruption in the scheme. The
> social audits also consisted of public hearings where the problems and
> compalints of citizens were brought to the fore among the district
> officials
> who have started acting against the complaints made against officials. I
> also realized the importance of MNREGA particularly in the rural
> backgrounds
> of this diverse nation of ours where this scheme could reverse not only the
> social and economic but also the political dynamics of our nation, and
> certainly wish it succeeds.
>
> Also, I would like to say that my perception of Nitish Kumar has certainly
> changed in some extent. Earlier I thought that the rural populace was not
> interested and also the Muslims, but at least at the ground level, though
> with a limited experience of groundwork, I did find Muslims actually liking
> Nitish Kumar's rule (the places I went to had up to 90% of Muslims), though
> they certainly didn't approve of the BJP. Ironically, the poor however
> found
> that the bureaucracy was more corrupt under Nitish's rule as compared to
> the
> Lalu rule, which gave them a sense of dignity. Also, the fact that Nitish
> is
> completely hamstrung in the implementation of land reforms and higher
> education reform reports shows that he is still held as a puppet by his
> MLA's and the BJP.
>
> Coming back to nationalism and the mail Bipin bhai sent, I would say that
> nationalism is something not only me but the great Rabindranath Tagore was
> himself against. Nationalism is something which has destroyed Israel
> itself.
> Tagore was against Gandhi on many ideas, and one of them was nationalism,
> even though Gandhi's own idea of nationalism was something Ashish Nandy
> described as 'leading to internationalism' and hardly involved violence of
> any kind. The reason was something we should all understand. Nationalism
> thrives on the feeling that one should place the nation-state before
> oneself. This is a highly dubious stand simply because a nation-state is
> not
> what Bipin bhai may think it to be.
>
> A nation-state, in an ideal case should mean a collection of people who
> have
> decided to live together, devising a commonly understood way of
> administration with minimum differences amongst them while having decided
> so. It is not the case. A nation-state simply means an authority which has
> the legitimate right to indulging in violence upon its' own citizens and
> others who act against the state. The problem with this is that the threat
> lies that the nation-state or those who control it can simply do as they
> wish and attack those who stop them in their steps, terming it as
> anti-state, and others are simply expected to follow it. Also, the violence
> of the state is justified and supposed to be taken as the verdict without
> ever questioning it. Nationalism has dangers of its own. Moreover, violence
> can't be justified in the name of protecting a state because the state may
> be oppressive, and the best option may be to throw off the state.
>
> Therefore, to state that nationalism is justified and would lead to
> development is travesty. Development should be for the people and not for
> those who control the nation-state and other sections who benefit from it
> where the major section of the population has to only suffer and not have
> the ability to change the situation. Naxalism is one result of what happens
> when this is the case. What will help the country is not nationalism, but
> instead a pro-people outlook which will guide the development process and
> help bring peace and prosperity to the citizens. Hence, let us stop
> bragging
> about nationalism here itself.
>
> Am fine sharing things with you in person (on my gmail id) on my trip to
> Araria, as this may not be the appropriate forum to do so.
>
> And happy to be back. Probably one of the few reasons I enjoy my dreary
> life
> in IIT, is Sarai.
>
> Rakesh
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-- 
Rajen.